Grief Support Chai — Milk & Honey Herbs

Our grief is a portal, an opening, a passageway into honoring that which we love. Anyone who’s ever been grief-stricken can tell you that grief is an expression of love – the two are inseparable. Grief itself isn’t something to be cured or healed, it’s something to be in relationship with. And, still, sometimes it’s too much. The weight of it can bear down and become immobilizing, expressed as a state of deep nervous system activation, exhaustion, and chronic stress.And sometimes the expression of grief isn’t enough. Our culture doesn’t give much space for grieving and the collective containers for slowing down enough to make space to feel, honor, and compost grief are lacking. Busyness is a trauma response and in this manifestation of grief overwhelm, our grief gets suppressed and held onto, eventually to the detriment to our health.One place our grief can easily get stuck is the lungs, where it can manifest as frequent respiratory infections, shortness of breath, heaviness and/or pain in the chest, and chronic respiratory dryness. And the fall is a dry, windy season which makes our lungs even more susceptible to these imbalances. Lots of this wisdom comes to us from Traditional Chinese Medicine, which associates the autumn and the lungs with grief, and has long understood that emotions can affect us physically. And you don’t need to be an expert in this system to understand the connection. The lungs are the organ that governs our breath and allows us to take in the oxygen created by the plants, which feeds and fuels our body. And they’re an organ of release as well – exhaling carbon dioxide in a beautiful dance with the plants- the miracle of photosynthesis. When this exchange gets blocked by unexpressed grief that settles in the lungs, and manifests in the ways mentioned above, our capacity to fully take in nourishment becomes hindered, weakening our respiratory system, and, eventually, our overall health. When we express, acknowledge, and move our grief we’re making space for that which truly nourishes us on both a physical and emotional level.This blend combines calming nervine herbs that have an affinity for the physical and emotional heart (rose, linden, hawthorn, cardamom), lung support herbs (linden, marshmallow, mullein, ginger, cardamom, cinnamon), and aromatic herbs categorized as “exhilarants” in herbal medicine (cardamom, cinnamon, rose), which lift the spirits and brighten the mood. This is an intentionally versatile formula that is supportive along the entire spectrum and journey of grieving. In traditional cultures grieving is never done alone. It’s always a collective process and community ritual. Making and drinking this tea is a way to be in community with the plants and lean into their support during grief-stricken times. They hold us and our grief and we’re no longer doing it alone.